Recent reflections by Elaine Gowdy – Mossley Youth Pastor

So where do I begin?
Lockdown in a house with a seven year old and a husband has had its challenges, but the positives have outweighed them all. 

It’s nearly hard to cast my mind back to those early days at the end of March, but when I do, believe it or not, I have fond memories.

The ‘Gowdy Fast Paced’ way of life stopped abruptly …and I was thankful. 

All the dates in our diaries were wiped out. All Georgia’s clubs and sports were paused. I didn’t have to make any apologies for double booking a coffee date, or say sorry for cancelling a catch-up because I was just too mentally and physically exhausted. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my social life! I thrive on all my different wee pockets of friends and I enjoy hearing work stories over a coffee, sharing parenting fails over a nice meal, and I especially enjoy being a shoulder that my friends can lean on. But due to my lack of ability to say the word NO, I often find myself dashing from one place to the next frantically and filling up weeknights in my diary all too easily. So forgive me when I say that relief washed over me when lockdown was announced. 

Now I should say, that I was also feeling anxious and afraid of the uncertainty that COVID-19 was bringing with it, but there was something about being in our own little ‘bubble’, in our house, that helped. 

Every morning we got up.
Simon went to work …in the living room. 
Georgia and I went to school …in the kitchen. 
Then we had lunch together. 
We worked some more. 
Then we had dinner together. 
Took our daily walk, and then home for bed. 

The next day, we’d get up and do exactly the same thing. Talk about Groundhog Day, but what a beautiful Groundhog Day it was!

The verse that God kept bringing before me was

Psalm 46v10 
“Be still and know that I am God.”

So this was what it was like for my life, to become ‘still’. I was enjoying it. While most definitely seeing, feeling and knowing God.

In the mist of the fear and panic I could see heroes being born in the NHS, I could see brave key workers keeping everything ticking over for us, families connecting like never before and friendships deepening on Zoom, (once I figured out how to use it!) 

God was in the midst. 

Simon, Georgia and I never had one argument the whole time, it was pure bliss being together 24/7 …Ok, you know that bit is a total lie! Lol! 

There was definitely some shouting, some huffs and maybe even a door or two that was slammed, but on the whole all of that was overshadowed by the feeling of togetherness that we suddenly found in each other. Us three against the world. 

We quickly adapted to our new routine and way of life, and we weren’t complaining. 

I’ve written a lot about the positive aspects but I can’t end this blog without sharing how much I’ve grieved over COVID-19 deaths. So much pain and suffering globally was difficult to view on TV, and after a few weeks we actually had to stop watching the news. 

I’ve prayed a lot over lockdown, I’ve prayed hard for this virus to just disappear, for people to get better quickly, and the world to just go back to normal. But you and I know that it doesn’t work like that. Instead we need to keep living each day we’re given, continuing to pray for those who have contracted the virus and to be continually thankful for all the frontline staff and key workers who have given so selflessly. 

We are being eased out of lockdown and would you believe that I have a few dates in my diary already? Old habits die hard. 

What I have been taught during this time though, is the importance of ‘being still’. 

Be still and know that I am God. How will I do it past un-locking? I’m not sure, but I’m most definitely going to try.